Chilly day in BA - a first!

We attended the finals of the Nations Cup. This was a tournament for 28 handicap teams. The final had Argentina playing Brazil. It was quite a good match with some long runs and good 'stickhandling'. Argentina prevailed (10-6). There was a bit of a breeze and we have gotten spoiled with the months of warm days and nights here. It actually got cold.We usually dont leave the apartment with an extra jacket (like we would do in Calgary) but it did give me an opportunity to wear a 2010 Dale sweater (complete with Vanoc Olympic logo). Every year, I have been getting a Dale sweater for volunteering at Lake Louise. This time (another first), I bought one. Mimi brought it back with her on her last trip home.






After the match, we met friends at Kansas, a restaurant across the road from the polo fields and had dinner......under deck heaters! After that, yes, we did end up at the Alvear Palace for a cleansing ale! Actually, a cleansing malbec but you get my point.

B.

Noventa pesos!

We went out for dinner last night to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We chose La Bourgogne, a French restaurant in the Alvear Palace Hotel. We started with a drink in the hotel lobby lounge and watched a bit of the world go by.

Afterwards, we went downstairs to the restaurant. We had a 9 o'clock reservation - which was on the early side for La Bourgogne. It is a grand restaurant. All the staff wear white tuxedo-like uniforms. Mimi's menu did not have the prices in it. We have not been to a restaurant like that in a long time.

They wheeled a cart up to the table that had a large silver bowl on it. The bowl was full of different kinds of champagne. They offered us a glass. Sounds great. Hmmm..... French restaurant, French champagne.

Long story short. The meal was awesome, the service perfect. Flambe steak - fired up at our table. Crepes Suzette - fired up at the table. There was also a special anniversary treat (more dessert) - which they fired up at the table. It had a large rocket sparkler on it.

To finish the evening, we had another glass of champagne.

We got the bill....did you know that French champagne in a French restaurant in Argentina is quite expensive? Four glasses of champagne, at $90 pesos each, cost more than our entire dinner!!

It was a memorable evening, we will return.......but we will drink Argentine bubbles next time!

B.

Quick currency converter ($1 CDN = $3.058 pesos).

One glass of imported French champagne was $29.43 CDN.

Meet the 45 Minute plums

Grocery shopping here is never boring. It is never exciting either.

There is the lottery of whether they actually have the items you are looking for. The lottery as to whether they will have change for you at the check out. The opportunity to have one too many items and get tossed out of the line.

• Meet the '45 Minute' plums.

That's how long it took from the time you enter the grocery store, to find them, to get in line to get them weighed, to get in line to buy them, to wait for change.

I have given up on fruit as a result.

We are not in Kansas anymore...

Or Michigan.

I went for a traditional North American breakfast on the weekend. Eggs Benedict. There is a place 10 minutes from the apartment called Amaranta. It serves a great Eggs Benny. You will also find a number of ex-pats have breakfast there as well. Breakfast is not a big meal for Argentines. In fact, it doesnt really exist. Just coffee.

Anyways, to make the restaurant even more realistic...even more North American, they put American cars on the street in front of the restaurant. What's more American than a Jeep? And what's more American than that?...a Jeep from Michigan!Either that or it was a very long way to travel for Eggs Benedict!

B.